Commercial Fisheries and the management of the Baltic stocks

Total catch records in the Baltic Sea

Fisheries data (landings) in the Baltic Sea have been systematically recorded since the 1920s whereas the stock dynamics of most commercially important species (e.g., cod, herring) are available since only the 1960s or 1970s. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) gathers the statistics of Baltic fish stocks in the assessments of the state of fish resources. ICES receives officially reported fish catches by national statistical offices. For use in their assessments, ICES estimates also discards and landings which are not officially reported, as well as the composition of by-catches. These amounts are included in the estimates of total catch for each stock.

According to ICES statistics, the total catches in the Baltic were 850,000-990,000 tons in the period of 1974-1984 (see attached table). Sprat and herring landings have dominated total catches since beginning of the 1990s (see figure to the right). The highest nominal catches were recorded during 1996-98, when total landings peaked 1,100,000 tonnes. The present annual level of total catch is approximately 700,000 tonnes. The stock fluctuations of major fish stocks have had mainly negative consequences to the economy of the Baltic fisheries and fleets in the last decades.

Management of the Baltic Sea fisheries

The International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC) was founded 1974 on the basis of the Gdansk Convention signed by the Baltic countries in 1973. IBSFC was responsible for managing the Baltic fish resources and gave recommendations for fishing in the Baltic Sea region as far as 2005. As all Baltic coastal states except Russia are members of the European Union, with their fisheries activities being regulated by the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the decision was made to close down the IBSFC. In 2006, EU and Russia agreed with a bilateral framework fisheries agreement.

Common Fisheries Policy

The EU CFP regulates all aspects of fishing, from the sea to the consumer. The overall objective of the CFP is to ensure economically, environmentally and socially sustainable use of fisheries resources. The EU member states have limited freedom to introduce national regulations. The CFP consists of many rules, principles and concepts (e.g. community waters, third country fishing and licenses, access to waters, relative stability, community vessel, fishing license, fishing permit, fishing effort ‘days at sea’, vessels capacity ‘GT’, kW…). So called “relative stability” is a principle which is used for sharing quotas (%) between the EU member states. Relative stability is a ‘permanent’ share decided usually according to historic catch records of EU member states.

Community flagged vessels have in principle access in the economic zone as far as 12 nautical mile line. There are exceptions of this basic rule in the Baltic Sea, where Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Finland have before joining EU agreed with access of their vessels as far as 3 or 4 nautical mile line. These exceptions are recorded into the annex of the basic regulation of the CFP.

TACs and quotas and technical rules for fisheries

The European Commission prepares proposals for measures and instruments for resource conservation including fishing quotas and fishing effort limitations after a certain consultative process. TACs (Total Allowable Catches) and quotas/EU member state are annually defined for commercially important fish stocks of the Baltic (Cod, Herring, Sprat, Salmon and Plaice). Baltic TACs for the year 2008 are published in Baltic specific Council regulation no 1404/2007: Baltic TACs 2008. The European Commission’s original proposal and ICES advices are published on the Commission's webpages.

The assessments of stock sizes and proposed exploitation levels are carried out by ICES. Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council (BS-RAC) which is made up of regional fisheries associations and other stakeholders including HELCOM is giving its opinion of the EC –proposals into the process. The Council (consisting of agriculture and fisheries ministers) adopt regulations in most of the cases by a qualified majority in consultation with the European Parliament.

EU regulations comprise also the Baltic specific fishery technical regulatory measures, such as mesh sizes, minimum landing sizes, by-catch limitations and periods and areas closed for fishing Baltic Sea fisheries. Ban of driftnet fishery was set after a three year transitional period in 2008. The Baltic coastal and inland fishery is mainly regulated by national legislation of each Baltic country.

The CFP and the Baltic fleet

Fleet management is one of the aspects of the CFP to achieve a balance between fleet capacity and fishing opportunities to ensure long-term sustainable use of resources. The statistics and can be found in this link: EC-fleet. The fleets are limited by regulations on the total capacity measured in gross tonnage (GT) and engine power (kW). The fleet is not allowed to expand; if new vessels are introduced, a corresponding capacity must abandon fishing activities. All EU fishing vessels have to be registered into the EU Fishing Vessel Register. The Fleet Register may be consulted on-line through the Europa fleet website. The data available includes e.g. fishing vessel identification, physical characteristics, fishing gear, ownership and agent information. The 2005 annual report on fishing capacity and opportunities prepared by the European Commission describes the economic performance of selected European fleets including the Baltic fleet.

EU is implementing structural policy measures to reduce overcapacity of fleets in the Baltic and to get Baltic fleets in better balance with the Baltic fishery resources. The economic impact of the recent development of the Baltic fleet is described in detail in a study published in 2006 by WWF Poland: Baltic fleet Impact of the EU Structural Funds on the fleet and fish resources in the Baltic fisheries sector.

Fisheries Control

Fisheries control including surveillance, inspections, data collection and enforcement are conducted by both the EU Member States themselves and the EU control organization to ensure compliance with the Baltic and national rules. The EU Commission conducts controls by dispatching Community inspectors to check on Member States´ control activities. The EU has also set up a Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) , starting recently to coordinate the Member States´ fisheries controls also in the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic wide Joint Inspection and Surveillance Schemes (JISS) were applied in 2007-2008 to deploy resources pooled by Member States (inspectors as well as physical means of control and inspections, such as vessels, airplanes and infrastructure). The control authorities of the Baltic EU member states apply their national control action programs in compliance with the rules of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1404/2007 in the context of the multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea cod stocks.

The so called IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) -fisheries is a global problem. It has demonstrated problems also with control of Baltic cod fisheries in particular. ICES has stated that the official catch statistics of cod have been revised by 30-40 % because of unreported and illegal catches of cod in recent years in the Baltic Sea. The Community has committed to act effectively in this sector. In June 2008 the Agriculture and Fisheries Council reached a political compromise of the package of new Community measures to prevent IUU –fisheries. EC has also committed to propose a new control legislation package substituting many of the Community regulations in force at the moment.

Fisheries of Baltic marine fish stocks

Cod, herring and sprat are the major marine fish species of high commercial value in the Baltic Sea. Also flatfish species like flounder and plaice are utilized especially in southern part of the Baltic Sea. About 90% of the total fish catch (tonnes) consists of herring, sprat, cod and flounder. The share of the Baltic landings by each country and main species in 2006 is given in the table below.

Table. The Baltic fish catch (tons) by every country and main species in 2006 (source: ICES and Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute)

Herring and sprat are taken mainly by pelagic trawl fisheries. The actual composition of pelagic catches is not precise because landings are assigned to species according to the target species in some landings statistics.

Small-scaled coastal fisheries

The most common species which are targets of small-scaled coastal fisheries in the Baltic Sea are cod, flat fish species, smelt and freshwater species:  whitefish (Coregonus), perch, pike-perch, pike, roach and ide. Recent studies suggest that many freshwater species have not exhibited a very high population abundance in various parts of the Baltic Sea for 10-20 years. For instance, coastal fish surveys display increase in perch and roach abundance in the Archipelago Sea, presumably due to ongoing coastal eutrophication as well as increased water temperatures. At the same time, in some other areas the same species have significantly decreased and/or even collapsed (west-Estonian Archipelago Sea). This can happen also in the highly eutrophicated areas of, Curonian lagoon, Daugava estuary and Pärnu Bay, where pike and pikeperch populations have declined due to too high fishing pressure.

The catches of professional coastal fisheries, the so called household fisheries, and the recreational fisheries are not recorded regularly in all Baltic countries. There are indications of some high removals of stocks in the Baltic, especially of cod and salmonids.

	HELCOM indicator fact sheet: Temporal development of Baltic coastal fish communities and key species Assessment of Coastal Fish in the Baltic Sea (2006) - BSEP 103a Changing Communities of Baltic Coastal Fish. Executive summary: Assessment of coastal fish in the Baltic Sea  (2006) - BSEP 103b HELCOM Red list of threatened and declining species of lampreys and fishes of the Baltic Sea (2007) - BSEP 109 Indicator-based assessment of coastal fish community status in the Baltic Sea 2005-2009 (2012)- BSEP 131

Scientific advise

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is carrying out assessments for the main stocks cod, herring, sprat, salmon, sea trout, and flatfish stocks. The latest stock trends and forecasts of the Baltic fish stocks are described in the ICES –pages report/2008/Baltic Sea. The state of the Baltic stocks and single stock exploitation limits and parameters are summarized in the table (page 16-17).

While the population structure for major commercial fish (cod, herring, sprat and salmon) is relatively well studied and distinct stocks identified, there is very little information available for fish which are managed at national levels. Unfortunately, information on genetic population structure for most fish species is still lacking in the Baltic Sea (and this hampers biologically sustainable use of the Baltic fish communities).